I write the big scenes first, that is, the scenes that carry the meaning of the book, the emotional experience.

Funeral expenses are the curse of the poor everywhere on earth, they are wasteful and unnecessary, they are the price of foolish ostentation and a display that is less an evidence of grief than a vulgar travesty of those pompous obsequies where no grief is.

The will is never free - it is always attached to an object, a purpose. It is simply the engine in the car - it can't steer

A novel should be an experience and convey an emotional truth rather than arguments.

No doubt any connoisseur, any collector, some bored old millionaire when he shows off his treasures, is seeking in your praise the resurrection and the life.

People don't use their eyes. They never see a bird, they see a sparrow. They never see a tree, they see a birch. They see concepts.

All art is bad, but modern art is the worst.